CTA in Philippines defends women’s rights

The CTA affiliate in the Philippines is part of Women Watch, a new women’s coalition which will monitor the performance of the nation’s new president, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, and her administration, on women’s issues and concerns. A kickoff rally March 9 in Iloilo City drew 1,000 people. CTA spokesperson was Hope Hervilla, who also represented CTA Philippines at the CTA Conference in Milwaukee last fall, and shocked audiences with her accounts of injustices to Filipina women.

Women Watch also includes a women’s foundation, a women’s center, and Gabriela, the national women’s alliance whose founder and chairperson is Benedictine Sr. Mary John Mananzan, liberation theologian and president of St. Scholastica’s College in Manila. Mananzan spoke at the CTA national conference in 1999. For the 2001 CTA conferences, Mananzan will return to speak in Chicago, and another Filipina theologian, Teresita Rosana, will speak in Los Angeles.